Warrior School Fails Again...

So I was scheduled for a pistol class this weekend at Warrior School of unreliable people who do not conduct scheduled training. Had originally planned to do one there about a month back. They canceled it at the last minute. Not a huge deal; frustrating but I suppose things can happen. Figured I would just catch the next one. Well fast forward a month or so. Today I got an email saying this course was canceled also. I am seriously underwhelmed with these people. In fact I am frustrated and angry. Basically I've been jerked around by them for over a month.

Based on my experiences I recommend staying far away from these people. They accepted my money and twice failed to do what they said they would do which left me hanging for months. I never trained with them but generally people who are professional in one thing tend to be professional in another which really does not bode well for the Warrior School. Best case these folks do good training but are terminally unreliable.

Hell maybe they are in the business of holding onto peoples money for a couple months at a time in some interest based Superman/ Office Space type scheme. That is the best explanation I can come up with 'cuz they sure don't seem to actually want to frickin train people. There is a saying of uncertain origin that 'a satisfied customer may tell one person but a dissatisfied customer tells everybody' and it is certainly true in this case. In fact thanks to them I am starting a new 'Black List' label. All rambling aside I simply cannot suggest a student throws down their money then frees up their schedule expecting to actually conduct some training.

So that leaves me looking for a sanely priced 1-2 day pistol class to attend. Money is a consideration. I don't mind paying the going rate of $200ish (or $300 for a big name type instructor) a day for quality instruction but a 5 day course with first class lodging and gourmet chow that costs more than most used cars isn't in the cards. It looks like I am going to play hell getting anything done now that it's heating up. This wouldn't have been an issue if I hadn't been jerked around by 'Warrior's School' of people who do not conduct scheduled training throughout the spring.

Anyway now it seems I am looking for a defensive type pistol shooting course within reasonable driving distance of southern Arizona. If a place was a bit far I could make the drive the night before then sleep over someplace but I cannot spend a whole day to driving on both ends. If you have suggestions they would be appreciated.

Looks like my weekend just freed up. Fail.

5 Systemic Mistakes in Survivalism

These mistakes are not universal but I think are widespread and should be addressed.

1) Lack of Physical Fitness. This should not come as a surprise. Some seriously prepared individuals with awesome skills and massive logistics are in pathetic shape. Some famous folks in survivalism would almost surely die if anything actually happened because they cannot do anything physical. I can't say what will take them out but something sure will. It might be walking to the neighbors and coming home with a bag of potatoes, or trying to do farm chores without a truck, tractor, chainsaw, wood splitter, power tools, etc all or maybe not being able to move their body and equipment during a fight or for some other reason. However to think they can fight or live an independent 19th century lifestyle is laughable.

For the sake of this article I don't care what type of exercise plan you have. Be able to move your body and some stuff quickly or for a long time and be able to lift stuff. Get to a reasonably healthy body weight. Enough beating that dead horse.

2) Overindulging in hobbies. Some folks like to sew, others like to garden, many like to shoot guns. The problem comes when we put too much of our preparedness money into our (even useful) hobbies. The woman with 12 sewing machines and a room full of stuff that doesn't have enough food or a gun is one example. On the other end is Mr Joe Survivalist with thousands of dollars in guns,  2 cases of MRE's and a little hotel sewing kit. I recall a guy who had multiple "shtf" motorcycles. You do not need a $600 fly fishing rod to be prepared, a decent alternative could be had at 1/10th of the price. I'm not saying you should not have hobbies or spend money on them. Just don't confuse a hobby (even a useful one) with preparations. Spend hobby money on hobbies and preparedness money on preparedness.

3) Worrying too much about narrow unlikely scenarios. Lots of things MAY happen but putting some energy and resources into ones that are a lot more likely to happen. Cough savings cough medical insurance cough.

4) Overconfidence and lack of training. Few people happen to come into survivalism with every useful skill yet for some reason people think they can fill those gaps  with Bubba at the range, youtube or blogs. That we are willing to spend lots of money on stuff but as a group have little interest in spending money to learn to use that stuff puzzles me.

Maybe it's that cool gadgets are tangible as well as cool. It could be admitting they need to improve or learn a skill does not sit well with many self styled rugged individualists. Everyone has unique skill sets and thus different gaps in the proverbial wire. Someone might need to improve a tactical skill set or learn wilderness survival or medical training or whatever. Over time and in proportion to other efforts ones skill set should be improved.

5) Not using the stuff they have. Gear should be trained with to get used to it and figure out how to make it work. Equipment should be tested. Little accessories and such will be identified during the course of this. Stuff needs to be tested as even good companies make a lemon now and then. Better to figure out your knife/ gun/ radio/ generator/ water filter/ whatever doesn't work on a lazy Sunday when you are testing it than when you need it to save your life.

Well there it is. If these apply to you do something about it. Otherwise feel free to disregard. Thoughts?

Fix Your Weaknesses- I am Getting Trained

If I haven't mentioned it Wifey took the kids home to go to a wedding and visit. Since most of the cost is getting her there it made sense for her to stay for awhile. So that means I am a geo bachelor for a few weeks. All of the household responsibilities of a normal bachelor but no dating (well you're not supposed to anyway and I certainly am not).

In any case I am taking advantage of this time to try and do some things. One of those things is taking a pistol class. I pulled the trigger today and will be heading up to Tuscon to Warrior School in a couple weeks for their Defensive Pistol class. The place was recommended to me by a smart guy I trust. Would like to track down enough 9mm fmj at a sane price to avoid dipping into the stash for range ammo. That doesn't really matter though.

Getting better with a pistol is something I've been wanting to do for awhile. Honestly I'm about as far as I'll easily get by myself. Putting money into a class makes a lot more sense to me than slinging it downrange hoping to get better. Thankfully the money is not a primary concern but if I had to sell a gun to fund this it would still be a smart move.

Pistols are my primary concern first because I'm the least competent and able to train myself to be better with them and secondly because that's what one is by far most likely to get into a fight with. It's going to be a fight with my CCW gun in a parking lot, not the AR in our house or some field.

I am not telling you to do what I am doing. We all have different weak points and what is right for me is probably not right for you. The point I am trying to make is to systematically look at your strengths and weaknesses both of personal skills, systems and food storage then work to make them better.

Address your weak points while you the opportunity is still available.

Dry Fire Practice- Little Things

This evening after putting Walker to bed I conducted some dry fire training. It was pretty good. Definitely getting used to handing the smaller J frame and it's trigger. One nice thing about a DAO revolver is that you cannot cheat and thumb cock it so you just have to get comfortable with the trigger. I am eager to get it out to the range and put some more ammo through it. This trip will coincide with zeroing the new scope for the AR after it arrives.

Did notice one interesting thing when shooting the wheel gun. My Blackhawk IWB holster came out with the gun a couple times. Admittedly it was probably just because I was repeatedly drawing without taking the time to really reset the holster. That consideration aside it is still no bueno. An easy fix is to undo the velcro on my rigger belt, slip the holster in and then re velcro the belt. The bottom of the plastic clip sort of looks like an upside down T that hooks on both sides of the belt keeping it solidly in place. I will probably talk more about this holster at some point. It's not perfect but for $10 picking one up when you get a gun then figuring out another option down the road when your budget allows (if you even feel the need to) is a solid option. Elitists will hate it but a $10 holster that is good enough for casual use or to get you started on a busget has some real value in the market place.

Next I shifted to rifle work. I haven't rocked iron's as primary sights for awhile and wanted to get used to using them in a CQB type setting. Also I needed to knock some dust off the old muscle memory. Rifle work was good. Weapon manipulation and target acquisition were solid. Also spent some time training with the tac light. With it located at about 1:30 the setup is pretty natural. The only minor issue is if I get lazy about grip my thumb can obscure the sights. Optics sit slightly higher so this should be less of an issue. If a bit more training will not fix this I will look at other mounting options or a pressure switch.

The point I am trying to get to is that we find flaws and weak points in our gear, systems and capabilities when we use them. Little things come up and we figure them out by setting stuff up differently or training appropriately. Occasionally something big pops up that must be dealt with. If you just buy a gun, a holster and a bunch of hollow points  then load up the gun and stick it in the holster to occasionally travel with you these flaws never appear. It is true that you may live a charmed life and never have these unknown flaws become huge problems but not everyone is so lucky.

Get out and use your stuff. Getting out and shooting is great but with the limited availability and high price of ammo these days it may be hard to do often. Dry fire is free and you can do it at home so there are no excuses.

Just Do It!

Draft New Years Resolutions

So a few days ago Alexander Wolfe of TEOTWAWKI Blog reminded me that I usually do New Years Resolutions. Last years deployment threw off the cycle. Anyway I got moving on this a lot later than usual; so these are not as thought through as they could be. I am posting some ideas. In a week or a month these will be solidified into the New Years Resolutions I am going to run with.

Physical:

Maintain a consistent weight lifting program.

Run over 1,000 miles

Ruck at least 1x a week

Eat reasonably with decent consistency so I don't gain and lose the same weight 2-3 times over the year.

Skills/ Training:

Attend a defensive handgun course.

Attend a trauma based first aid class (I am due for retraining).

Work on developing a variety of other skills as they come up by doing as much myself as possible.

Guns and Gun Junk:

Pick up a couple holsters, pouches and assorted other stuff to get squared away for what we have. 

Buy 2 cases of .223 ammo.

Free float the barrel on project AR. 

Get more spare parts. Beef up on core stuff (AR's and Glocks) and get some basic stuff for other guns.

Finally get my (already sporterized) 1903 30'06 tapped and mount a scope on it. 

If this gun ban madness calms down start building an AR pistol.

Food:

Build up to a 1 year supply of food for 4 people.

Can something

Pursue gardening/ fishing/ hunting as it fits with our environment and life. 

 Energy/ Other:

Get a better solar setup. A bigger panel with a power supply and a few small lights is the answer. Goal 0 makes what I am looking for. It will cost about $400. Probably 500 once I get the lights. This would have gotten purchased late in 2012 but the whole ban madness shifted my priorities elsewhere.

Get licensed to drive a motorcycle. Purchase a used enduro/ adventure touring motorcycle.

Continue putting together and refining our systems. Firm up the bug out bags and the heavy (vehicle) bug out setup.

Re look and improve our cache situation.

Financial:

Continue being debt free and saving. Along these lines continue not doing stupid things. 

Once we are done with the food storage goal get back to putting away some silver and gold.

Long Shots:

Get a DBAL for my AR.

Buy some land (this mostly depends on some other things).

As always input is welcome. It would be fairly useful now before these resolutions are solidified. 

My Gut is Telling Me

1) Store food. Lots and lots of food.

2) Develop skills to do things for myself and to trade with others.

3) Fill in the little holes in our systems. This ranges from a $40 sling that makes a $1,000 gun functional to yeast that will help turn flour into bread or little pieces of kit to make rough living more comfortable.

4) Address deficiencies in my weapons handling/ defensive/ tactical training.

5) Get into the best shape of my life.

I don't know what any of it means or where it came from though most of it makes sense.

Shooting Book Read, Garand Sale, Potential Training

After a good nights sleep and an easy morning run things are looking up in the world. Also Friday is a plus for sure. Today was a weird day at work. I had to be there and occasionally do stuff but the rest of the time doing whatever was cool. So I read Your Competition Handgun Training Program: A complete training program designed for the practical shooter by Michael Seekerland. Definitely got a ton out of it. Way too much to digest it today. Very good stuff. Working some new stuff in my dry fire practice. Among other things doing mag changes the right way was part of today's fun.I am planning to implement the exact program from the book stretched out to my timeline for dry fire practice and shooting. A full review will likely follow after I have gotten to implementing the program.

 After that I started The Irish War. Picked it up at a (or maybe the, I'm not sure) Army Museum in London and have been meaning to get to it. The importance of public relations and managing the media are made clear. Very interesting stuff.

The M1 Garand sale is a go. I am not replacing it with another gun parse though this sale is more or less concurrent with Project AR Upgrade. The collection is looking a lot more functional these days. On the plus side this frees up a decent amount of resources for reallocation. Got to look at some things and see what cracks out. It's probably going to be a light of some sort.

I have also been looking at some potential training opportunities. It is too easy to just buy guns and gun stuff and not work on the skills to run said guns. While I have some solid skills there are also some areas I need to work on. Thankfully right now I am in a place to (hopefully/ potentially) do some of that. There is potential for a Defensive Pistol class next month and maybe an Appleseed in December. If things go well I would like to take another course in the spring. 

 Anyway that is what's going on today. Tomorrow I will talk about something other than gun junk. Hope you are all having a great Friday.

 

Dry Fire Practice

I have started doing dry fire practice over the past few days. Definitely good stuff. I have figured out a few things and am getting my overall concealed carry system sorted out. While K over at Combat Studies Group has some interesting ideas to fill a few sessions I am sort of flying fast and loose without an overall plan. Suspect I will end up with something cyclical. Will figure it out soon enough; if I recall there is a good book on dry fire training on my Amazon wish list.

Need to figure out the shooting scene here. My goal is to conduct dry fire training not less than 6 days a week and live fire training monthly. Would like bi weekly better but I am not sure if that is realistic right now. Will have a better idea once I figure out the logistics of shooting here and some other stuff. Certainly monthly is realistic.

I discovered the TV show Longmire and it is pretty cool. A contemporary Western that has some of the good parts of those old shows without being a cheese throwback.

Anyway that stuff was all going on and all of a sudden I realized it was after midnight and I hadn't posted anything today. Now I'm off to bed.

Shooting Fun

Got some M4 time today. I haven't shot in forever and did better than usual. Did change a few small things and I was pretty relaxed. Who knows. Anyway I was saw the need to improve my prone unsupported position. Spent some time there and made some progress over the beginning.

I definitely can't wait to get back to the states where individual training is a viable option. I see lots of dry fire training in my future as well as monthly or bi monthly firearms training. If you have a plan it isn't essential to burn up a ton of ammo. Also .22's come into play for repetition and remedial training.

The freedom stealers think the most recent mass murder is a great excuse to try taking our rights. Never let a good opportunity go to waste. They have been talking about this special magazine that holds a hundred rounds (beta mag or generic equivalent I assume) and how it GASP can shoot 60 rounds a minute. With a bit of practice anybody could do that or better with evil high capacity STANDARD 30 round magazines.

Interestingly guns have been selling like well, guns after a mass shooting. It looks like people are getting carry pistols and some folks who fear a ban are buying semi automatic military pattern rifles. Carry permit applications are up also.  I saw this on the news and it goes with what has been happening in my circle. A couple Wifey knows who used to be rabidly anti gun went and applied for permits then to the gun store. I sure hope they get some sort of training.

Anyway I got trigger time which means it was a good day.

What are your Weak Points and What are you Doing About Them?

Know how when you are pissed off at somebody everything they do just makes you more angry? Like at #*$*(# at the office who has the darn nerve to sit and quietly work at their desk? Well that has been just about everything for me today. Not entirely sure why but I am really annoyed without any particularly good reason.

Anyway I have been looking at our weak points lately.

First and foremost our food storage situation is not good right now. From the point where I started earning real money we were moving, then we got to Germany which has it's own issues. We have established, then tried to eat up, a decent 90+ day food supply wherever we went. In about 2 months we are headed back to the US. Among other things we are going to vigerously pursue a serious food storage program. This will be the biggest single goal we will be pursueing. I expect it will take a year or two to really get to where we want to be.

In terms of skills I need to get better with a handgun. I am not where I need to be and for better or worse this is the gun most likely to be fought with. Some professional training will happen to pursue this objective. Attending an Appleseed would be interesting also. I don't really need any sort of cool guy CQB rifle stuff. A shotgun course might be worthwhile but that is low on the list and years away.

We have some work to do on cross training between Wifey and myself. I need to improve or build some domestic skill sets and she can use some defensive and primative living skills. This is probably going to be a work in progresss for the foreseeable future. That is OK since it doesn't really end until I know everything she knows and visa versa.

That really answers the questions for my house.

What are your weak points and what are you doing about them?

Azimuth Check

I have stolen this title from Lizard Farmer who runs an excellent newish blog that focuses on retreat/ farm/ ranch defense. His post was more a check on how folks thought his blog was doing. I will head in a different direction. My azimuth check is more about the direction from where my/ your overall situation was to where we want it to be. I will break it into a few categories.

Finances:
How is your debt situation? Do you have any debt with an adjustable or otherwise particularly high interest rate?

Do you have some savings for if something happens?

Do you have some money accessible to buy things if there is an event that interupts normal banking (this means cash on hand)?

If you can afford it have you considered putting some money into precious metals? There isn't a right or wrong answer to this one. Folks differ widely on this topic.

Health:
Are you and your family of a reasonably healthy body weight? If not are you making tangible progress towards getting there?

Do you have any health/ medical/ dental issues that could be improved but have not been? Maybe you need an elective surgery or have been putting off dental work or need to get into physical therapy to get something worked out. Bringing us back to the last question it is utterly amazing how many medical issues decrease or go away if you get to a reasonably healthy body weight.

If applicable do you keep a stash of essential perscription meds on hand? Keeping 30 days on hand is ok, 90 days is pretty decent and will cover a lot of issues but of course more is better. It may mean paying out of pocket but consider the alternative which is, to varying degrees, very ugly.

If applicable do you have at least a pair of spare glasses in your current perscription (two or three would be better)?


How are your chompers doing?

How are you doing at physical fitness? Can you walk long distances with a load? Run fast for short periods and slower for longer ones? Control your body weight through a variety of tasks and obstacles? Lift heavy things or carry another person?

Skills and Training:

Can you make a fire? At night? Can you do it when it has been raining for a week strait?

Can you find your way around with a compass and a map?

Can you make or improvise some sort of shelter to be as comfortable as possible in a variety of situations?

Can you turn basic staples like flour, rice or wheat into a decent or even tasty meal?

Can you grow or raise your own food?

Can you find or gather food from fishing, hunting, plant gathering or something else really cool I have never heard of?

Can you fix stuff? Mechanical things? Small arms? Brick and mortar? Wood? Plumbing? Electrical?

Can you engage targets with personal weapons in realistic circumstances?

Can you organize a defense be it at home or in some sort of hasty situation?

If the Chinese invade or whateveer can you plan and execute small unit Red Dawn/ partisan/ G style offensive operations?

Stockpile and Equipment:

How is your food storage doing?

Do you have personal weapons as well as the stuff needed to use them? Do you have some spare parts, cleaning stuff and ammunition to keep your guns running without a trip to Wally World or the local gun shop?

How are you doing at storing all of the other stuff like medical supplies, batteries, fuel, cleaning and hygiene stuff, spare parts, etc all to keep on keeping on as well as you can without outside assistance?

Is the stuff you have put together into kits or packages or systems that will meet your needs on short notice?

I am sure there are some good questions that I missed. This covers a ton of ground so do not be ashamed if there are some areas where you fall short. My goal is to give you some areas to think about and see where you are at. Every one of these questions is not equally applicable to all situations. Like many things you would be well advised look at these questions with brutal honesty, action what is applicable and disregard what is not.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Skill Saturday- Skill Development

skill/skil/

Noun:

The ability to do something well; expertise. A particular ability

 I decided to start paying more attention to skills here. Starting by talking about what skills are and different ways you can develop them seemed like as good of a place as any. To me skills differ from education or knowledge in that they relate so some sort of a specific action or end product. A mechanic could show his skill by fixing a vehicle or a chef by making a tasty meal.

Broadly speaking skills tend to be more difficult to develop on you own than knowledge. A guy who reads the right shelf of books and has a decent memory could learn a lot about history for example. It would be much harder to learn to fix engines from a shelf of books.

Thankfully over the last couple decades between how to tapes and DVD's, the internet, reasonably priced recording equipment and youtube there are some readily accessible individual options other than trying to figure things out from a small black and white picture in a book. Being able to read about something and see another person do it goes a long way towards making it actually work. Assuming we are talking about a reasonably simple skill and you are a moderately intelligent person this is often enough to get started.

The upsides of this self guided at home type learning are that you can do it whenever and almost wherever you want. You can learn skills that are uncommon in your area or you don't want to advertise pursueing for whatever reason. The downsides are that it is seriously limited in what you can learn. Complex skills with multiple things going on at once (shooting, hand to hand combat, complicated auto repair, etc) do not typically work well with this style of learning.

 In many cases the easiest way to develop a skill is to find somebody who has that skill and get them to show you how to do it. This is a good place to start for most skills. Look at people in and around your family/ friends/ work circles. Somebody probably knows how to do basic auto maintenance, another guy might know how to do tile or plumbing or shoot a gun. Typically folks are willing to help you out. Just about everybody likes an excuse to practice their hobby so if the skill falls into that area you are probably good to go. If it is something a guy does for a living like auto repair or construction it is a bit harder. Offering to help them work on a project of theirs vs offering to let them do their job outside of work and fix your car/ toilet/ whatever for free is something I have seen work well.

The upsides of this style of learning are that it is convenient, comfortable and cheap. All of these are good things.

The downsides however are noteable. Sometimes free training is worth exactly what you paid. Jimbo the gun guy or Bob the shade tree mechanic might be completely uncapable or even dangerous. Unfortunately folks with no experience in an area are often not capable of assessing an individuals skill or ability at instruction.  Often instruction in this style is limited by time and effort by both parties. If your 65 year old retired neighbor shot high power for 4 decades and is lonely he might teach you almost everything he knows over a few years of Sundays at the range but if your 30 year old cousin who casually target shoots takes you to the range once the amount of skills you get will be pretty minimal.

Also different groups vary but it is my observation that often skills tend to cluster in groups based on region/ socioeconomic/ cultural leanings. The odds that a rural Wyoming community has folks who can teach you to shoot or hunt are a lot higher than in Manhattan. On the other hand Jim the rancher probably can't do the paperwork to set up a dummy corp incorporate your small business in 20 minutes during a Saturday BBQ. Sometimes skills you need do not exist inside of your social group.

As with anything in life, you get what you pay for.

The next option is looking to local groups or clubs. Join an outdoors or orienteering club or whatever. This may cost a little bit of money but if paying a $20 membership fee and doing some stupid meetings lets you get a skill that you need it is a good investment. The upside is that you can pursue specific skills in this way. The downside would be that it really only applies to certain hobby type skills.

The last option is getting professional training in the area(s) you are weak in. If you really want to learn how to do something getting quality training from an expert is a hard option to beat. For specific skills which have a high level of technical complication that you really want to get good at this is probably the best way to go. Unless your good buddy is an MMA fighter or a tactical marksmenship instructor who is willing to teach you for weeks or years for free this is really the only viable options. One thing to consider is how much time and money you would need to spend to reach a given skill level. Lots of schools can teach you to be a decent defensive handgun shooter in a weekend for a few hundred bucks. Spending 2 years going full time to a technical school to learn to fix engines is a lot harder to pull off. The only real downside of this plan is that it is expensive. The old addage about trading time and convenience for money probably applies here.

Anyway while not exclusive the ways we talk about developing skills are pretty representative of the available options.

Thoughts?

Skills and Mindset

Recently I realized something that I do not like about this blog recently. There is not anywhere near enough discussion of skills, mindset's or training taking place here. After looking around long and hard for somebody to blame for this shortcoming I was unable to find anybody but myself.

I got to thinking about why exactly this is the case. The answer came about pretty easily. This blog is largely a reflection of what I am doing, working on or thinking about. Skilss haven't been a big part of this personal journey in survivalism or it's subsequent twists and turns.

The reason that skills haven't been a big part of my journey are that I came into this thing fairly comfortable with my skillsets. At the risk of tooting my own horn when I became seriously interested in survivalism I had a solid outdoor background, decent hand to hand and firearms/ tactical skills and a variety of little stuff learned from rural living and various redneck jobs. Certainly not saying that I know everything or am a master of anything but somehow I had a pretty good grab bag of skills to work with.

Once I started getting into this I pretty much needed stuff to feed the skill sets that already existed. This I have been more likely to be thinking and talking about something related to food storage than how to cook with a camp stove as I can do that. While I have worked on a small skill here or there it hasn't been a big part of my personal preparations.

I want to add these parts to the blog in greater frequency, mostly for readers. The way I talk and operate here works for somebody with a background similar to mine but would fail miserably for a lot of people. Different folks need different things to become more fully prepared. The desired endstates are the same but how to get there is different based on where one currently is. A super rural small scale organic farmer/ rancher has different needs and concerns than a big city SWAT cop. Obviously what is good for one person isn't necessarily good for another.

In any case broadly speaking my lack of discussion of skills is an issue. In the worst extreme it could leave them with thousands of dollars of stuff they don't have a clue what to do with. I will try to consciously step back and talk about different foundational skills to the best of my ability.

Priorities should probably go to the most foundational stuff. You have got to learn basic weapons handling before you learn to shoot steel at 1,000 meters and how to change the oil before rebuilding an engine. This also helps because it typically puts the easiest targets in front of you first. Finding a basic (qualified) instructor in firearms handling, outdoor skills, auto maintenance, etc is probably something you can do pretty locally and cheaply. Heck if you are willing to invest some time and sweat equity money may not even be an issue. Less so if you want to shoot like Sammy The Seal or Wally the Super Woodsman who an go into the woods with a knife and build a shopping mall.

Personally I have some things to work on. Mostly because of the eccentricities of Germany (as well as our OP Tempo and deployment) the skills I need to develop have pretty much been in a holding pattern. I need to get better at mechanical stuff and harvesting wild game/ plants. I could greatly benefit from some targeted professional firearms training. Additional medical training is always beneficial. I am almost surely missing other stuff. Some of these things will take sweat equity and the rest will take cold hard cash.

Not quite sure how I will do this. Maybe a weekly feature or something. Despite any of my failures as a blogger please pay attention to the skill sets which you have and those which you lack. Work to close the gap between the two. Come up with some sort of plan that will allow realistic progress towards these goals.

1911's Suck?

 The recent 1911's suck video by James Yeager seems worth talking about. In case you missed it here is the video:

For the sake of intellectual honesty and to have a little Devils Advocate fun I am going to say things 1911 lovers will not like. Anyway here we go. 

The reasons people buy 1911's often have a lot more to do with their history, lineage, machismo factor and fact that the mighty Jeff Cooper carried one than anything about the actual gun itself.

1911's are big, heavy, don't hold a lot of bullets, are not lefty/ambi friendly and have controls that are difficult for many people to use well.

If you look at the 1911 honestly they probably (which I say just because doing a comparison would be a hassle) get bested as a defensive/ service weapon by modern handguns like those made by Glock, Springfield (XD), S&W MP, etc all in any honest test.

To be completely blunt if the 1911 was designed today it would probably never be made and certainly would not become popular. 

Sorry 1911 lovers, it really isn't anything personal and everything I said is true. You wouldn't be fuming right now if it wasn't. End Devils Advocate fun.

Moving forward I think 1911 reliability issues and failures can be attributed to a few distinct categories. I will discuss them in no particular order.

Age- A gun made in 1917 that still has all original parts might reasonably have some issues. I once went to the range with a buddy who brought an old family heirloom 1911. It was a neat old gun of WWI vintage. After about 50 rounds the barrel bushing broke and the slide flew off into the dirt with the recoil spring and plug going all over the place. We picked up the parts and he got a new bushing. Not a huge deal really, metal fatigues, springs weaken, etc over long periods of time. A lot of these real old guns probably need a little TLC and just need to be retired as safe queens.

Manufacturers- So many people have made 1911's and most of them sucked at it. I stick with popular manufacturers and common models for a very good reason, they are far more likely to work well than no name or the fly by night guys.

Any yahoo master gunsmith can slap some plug and play parts together in his mom's basement custom shop and try to sell it for big money. On the opposite end of the cost spectrum the super cheapo ones often have issues too. Expecting a $350 no name 1911 to function like a Springfield, Colt or Kimber is probably is just not realistic. While some deals are better than others you generally get about what you pay for.

[DIY- The plug and play factor of 1911 parts has also lead to a lot of people trying to be gunsmiths and slapping a bunch of random parts together with predictably poor results. If you or your buddy screw with a gun and it stops working the fault doesn't lie with the gun. Also if you buy a used 1911 the guy who owned it a decade ago may have tried this and left the gun messed up.]

Maintenance- 1911's and in particular custom/ target models which we will discuss later are more picky about maintenance than a lot of modern service type handguns like Glocks and XD's. As Larry Vickers said "[i]f ... you treat your pistols like we all treat our lawnmowers then don’t get a 1911 – use a Glock."

Tolerances and "Target models"- As noted in the video the old WWII era 1911's had significant tolerances, such that they would often rattle if shaken. However they also shoot reliably. There is a very direct relationship between tolerances, accuracy and weapon malfunctions. Tighter tolerances make for more accurate guns but they also mean that guns are more likely to malfunction.

Over the last 30 years or so a lot of 1911 manufacturers have tried to cash in on the "target" designation. They made the guns more accurate by tightening up the tolerances significantly which is easy with modern manufacturing techniques. This allowed them to make the gun  significantly more accurate and add 30-60% to the price. However many of these guns are equally accurate and jamtastic. Even the really expensive "target" type guns can be "picky" or only "like" one brand of ammo or have "unexplained feeding issues". As Tam noted awhile back it is interesting that a $1,200 gun is "picky" or has "unexplained feeding issues" but a $200 gun that does the exact same things is a jamomatic piece of junk. My personal advice is to keep the "target" models for competition/ ranges and to carry a service gun with it's significantly higher reliability and amply capable accuracy.

Those 4 areas are where I think most 1911 issues come from. One could argue that they are really not that hard to mitigate. Simply using a modern 1911 made by a major manufacturer and doing reasonable maintenance on it will go a long way.

My general observation is that standard models from major manufacturers like Springfield and Colt function like the service pistol the 1911 was designed to be. In other words they are reasonably reliable and accurate enough to be a viable defensive weapon. I haven't found them unduely maintenance intensive but I take pretty good care of guns anyway.

For the sake of full disclosure I own a Springfield Mil Spec 1911. I have used it for concealed carry and home defense and would not hesitate to do so again. I do not have anything bad to say about it. However I am trying to sell it which shows where my money is really going. I don't really do anything with it these days and it is complicating my logistics. Also by selling it I can get another Glock 9mm.

As to the bottom line. In my opinion if you like 1911's and are able/ willing to mitigate their weak points I do not see why a 1911 can't serve you well. Just because they aren't the highest tech and most low maintenance/ reliable gun out there doesn't mean they aren't good enough.

Thoughts? This should be fun.

Trying To Be Positive

This would probably be a more popular and successful blog if I agreed with people that plans I believe to be seriously flawed were just great. Things like "Sure 10 minutes of callistenics and a 20 minute walk 3 times a week will have you into peak fighting shape" or "everyone knows popping off a few rounds 3 times a year with your buddies is the peak of firearms training" or "yeah a High Point 9mm is the best handgun on the market today for self defense."

I thought about it a lot and realized that I just don't really care. I have certain beliefs that I hold pretty strongly. They stem from my background, personal and professional experiences. Heck often I have tried these things and found them to be wanting. Also my nature is such that I tend to share and call stuff that is wrong when I see it. If I wasn't that way this blog probably wouldn't exist.

I thought about it a lot and think I have come to an answer. Part of the issue is that I am coming at things negatively instead of positively. Really folks doing something is seriously better than nothing. The last thing I want to do is to discourage anybody.

So I am going to try and be a bit more positive when I call it as I see it. Anyway that is all for today,

Ryan

Question of the Day- The Military and Preparedness

Commander Zero asked about my thought on...

The relationship, coinciding interests, practical applications, and relativity of military experiences in regards to preparedness. Or, put another way, what in the military is or has been applicable to preparedness.

Also, do you ever broach the subject with your comrades and if so what is their opinion?

TOR replies: To answer this question we have to look at what servicemembers do.
Let us say as a baseline a soldier is trained to shoot and maintain rifles and maybe handguns as well as basic individual stuff like pulling guard, searching prisoners and basic defensive and movement tactics. They have some exposure to first aid, map reading, land navigation, NBC (nuclear, biological, chemical) type (yes I know there is a new acronym, I think it is stupid and am keeping the old one as protest) events as well as a variety of other skills. Theoretically every soldier should be familiar with all skill level 1 common tasks in addition to whatever skills are required for their individual job.
An Infantryman should be very competent at all skill level 1 tasks and able to effectively use every weapon in the US Army up to (and depending on the kind of unit they are in including) mortars and have a solid understanding of Battle Drills and movement techniques.
Note that I used the phrases theoretically and should. Some folks are solid above and beyond their skill and experience level and others not so much. Sometimes this is individual and other times groups or units show trends. In particular I can say that land nav is pretty weak in lower enlisted and support type folks.

[Before continuing this I feel that it is worthwhile to give a bit of a disclaimer. I can speak about being a soldier, an Infantryman and an Officer in the US Army and make some reasonable generalizations about the Army and the Navy's Army aka the Marines. The Navy, Coast Guard and Air Force are very different and while they all do great things a lot of what I am going to talk about does not apply to the vast majority of their service members. Also of course experiences vary among branches and occupational specialties. If I offend you it is not intentional.]
Most folks get some of these type skills to some varying degree in whatever branch or job they are in. Aside from what we could call basic soldier skills folks in support type jobs can learn other applicable skills. Medics, combat engineers, plumbers, electricians and diesel mechanics learn skills that are are clearly useful. Some folks are in such a position that their military experience, however valuable to our nation it may be, relates very little to survivalism. There are however some characteristics that military folks even an X Ray tech on a carrier or a an administrative type in the Air Force who hasn't touched a rifle since basic training still seem to have.

The ability to deal with stress is a big one. For a lot of reasons military folks deal with ton of stress. Being able to think clearly and make sound decisions under stress is something military folks tend to be good at.

Physical fitness. The military in general (and far more so SOF and Infantry types) is a pretty fitness oriented culture. You see some very fit people in the most random support jobs.

Planning. Beyond dealing with stress this is likely the biggest general contribution of military service for most people. There are surely some more general traits but I can't think of them right now.

As to the applicability of military service to preparedness. Survivalism and its better dressed more polished cousin preparedness could be broken down into a variety of different skill sets (each with logistical requirements but they don't really apply to this) which support the endstate of being able to survive and thrive in an uncertain and difficult future.

 One could, totally off the top of my head, break these down into: tactical, wilderness and primative living, food production and storage, physical fitness, medical, mechanical and building skills, communication and energy production.

It may be more useful to look at applicability by those skill sets:
In terms of tactical stuff Infantryman, other combat arms guys (and or course SOF) learn some pretty darn applicable things. While not a perfect stopping point these skills put them well beyond most folks. Other folks skills may be somewhat watered down and just give some basic firearms training or entirely absent.

When it comes to wilderness and primative living folks who spend a lot of time outside living out of rucksacks and in tents learn things. Typically these would be combat arms guys and those who go walk around with us.

Few folks learn much of anything to do with food production and storage. Cooks learn to cook but that isn't really a weak area for most folks anyway.

In terms of medical stuff obviously medical folks like doctors, nurses and medics know a lot. Soldiers typically have a better level of first aid and particularly trauma training than average folks who take a first aid class or two. The more current versions of Combat Lifesaver and various other courses are pretty good and are often pushed down to the lowest level. This is one of the areas where we have really gotten our act together in the last few years.

As to mechanical and building type skills folks whose job is in those areas like mechanics, electricians and carpenters or whatever obviously learn stuff. The rest of us not so much.

For communication lots of folks get what could be described as radio communication 99 and commo guys, forward observers and JTACs get more useful experiences.

Other than electricians and generator mechanics nobody gets much in terms of alternative energy applicable stuff.

Also, do you ever broach the subject with your comrades and if so what is their opinion?
Not really and even then not directly. However when you get to know folks you pick up on things (and they pick up things about you). Somebody who has a solid gun collection and keeps a good amount of ancillary stuff put away that is also fiscally modest as well as conservative/ liberty leaning probably has some stuff going on. With these folks I will offer a piece of advice in context. Example, somebody is talking about the rough price of magazines for their handgun, I might suggest that they should not pay more than $XX and that it is worthwhile to check out a website that has what they need like CDNN.
As I don't mention this sort of stuff with folks who are not at least partially in the club and still keep the cards pretty close to my chest I don't know how a lot of folks might handle it. I can offer my totally anecdotal observations. I would say there are some survivalists, more "preppers", a LOT of gun nuts and the balance made up of pretty normal folks within the military.
Also there is an interesting coincidence. While survivalists as a group are not necessarily a high percentage of military members I would say that a very high percentage of survivalists have some military background. This is not suprising as middle and lower middle class conservatives from the rural/ small town West and South tend to be a significant percentage of survivalists and this group is well represented in the military.

Anway again if I offended anyone it was not intentional. If you have anything to add please comment. Lets not get into a service vs service thing and if you try to say that some random admin or logistics type job is super ninja JSOC rambotastic I might make fun of you.

No Secrets

This one has been brewing in my head for awhile. Every once in awhile there is a post I really wish I would have written and this is one of those times. I am going to take a few selections from John Mosby's original post (italicized for clarity). I suggest reading it if you somehow missed it awhile back.

"Many people believe that only “super-secret-squirrel” elite units of the military and law enforcement have access to the most effective secret techniques of interpersonal violence. They want to believe the ridiculous advertising of companies that claim you can learn their “super-secret-above-top-secret-Delta-SEAL-SWAT-Ninja fighting methods” for only $79.95 plus shipping and handling. The truth is far more simple…and demanding. Every single method, technique, and concept used by elite military units is available to the general public through non-classified, open-source, public venues.



They are available to “Joe Citizen” just like they are available to “Danny Delta” and “Sammy the SEAL.” The difference is that the legitimate Delta/SEAL/SWAT/Ninja is willing to sacrifice the effort to “do the work.” He is willing to practice any specific skill 100,000 times, or more, in every possible environment, until that skill becomes part of his neural programming.


There it is in plain and simple English. There are no secrets. No matter what some idiot tells you a $49.95 dvd will not turn you into a super Spetznas prison cage fighter. Regular training in a functional martial art coupled with regular weight training will make you a scary person to fight, not 6 easy moves you can learn in an afternoon.

You can get really good, like scary good with pistols and rifles if you choose. It will take some academic work, quality training, a lot of dry fire and some rounds downrange in a determined training fashion on a regular basis. The exact same could be said about wilderness survival skills, battle drills, fieldcraft, fitness or comunications or medical skills. It is all readily available if you will take the time, energy and expense to learn and internalize it.

I want to leave you off with another quote (from earlier in the post but it served my purposes better here) from the post that inspired this one. The professional, motivated war-fighter trains like the classic Type-A alpha male of his tribe. He seeks out the best training available and practices the skills he learns until he has mastered them…then he practices them some more. He lifts heavy weights and he runs fast. He boxes and wrestles in training to ensure that he can continue to bring the fight to the enemy, even if he loses his weapons. He attends training courses from companies like Magpul, CSAT, or VTAC, to ensure that he is learning combat shooting methods from experienced war-fighters. Then, he spends hours each week dry-firing his weapons so that he masters the physical skills he will need. Like some fabled Tier One JSOC Jedi, he trains to perfection…and then he trains some more.



It is all available to you if you are willing to do the work.

SERPA Holsters

I mentioned SERPA holsters in a post about equipment soldier’s use and got a couple comments about them. They more or less matched up with some relatively recent reporting of people having negligent discharges when using the holsters. So here are my thoughts.

When I first saw them I thought it was a gimmicky idea and would be a flash in the pan. Man I got that one wrong, I totally missed the pulse of a community I am a part of. Before anyone asks personally I do not like SERPA holsters. Maybe it is for the best that I do not buy individual stocks.  The reason I do not like SERPA holsters is that they have a method of retention that uses the index finger. I am used to thumb break and open top friction type retention holsters. I have a lot of muscle memory in thumb breaks and just pulling the darn thing out is pretty much as easy as it gets. My personal experience is that in times of stress and fatigue we revert back to muscle memory. I can’t get over visions of myself trying to pull the darn thing out and pressing random stuff with my thumb only for it to stay fast in the holster.  They work fine I guess but I see no reason to stray from what I am used to.  That sums up my strictly personal opinion on the matter.
As to the SERPA and negligent discharges I find little to no reason to buy into it. Sure you have to extend your finger to draw the weapon but personally I draw that way anyway as it puts my hand where I want it. I index my finger along the frame above the trigger until I want to shoot something. If you don’t stick your bugger picker into the trigger guard and go flopping it around wildly the darn gun probably will not go off. That is strictly a software issue (in your darn head) not a hardware issue, at least in the way you might think.
It reminds me of when a couple of big PD’s (back east, NY I think) switched to Glock’s some time back and had a few embarrassing high profile negligent discharges. Those Glock’s were not faulty in any way. They fired when some cop stuck his finger into the trigger guard and pulled the trigger, intentionally or not. The reason is that the new hardware (the Glock’s) exposed a weakness that had always existed in those shooters. Those cops grew up on double action revolvers (and had maybe spent a short period using DA/SA auto’s but let’s not get sidetracked from our current side track). Not that you should but one could walk around with their finger on the trigger of one of those old DA duty guns all day long, about no way you could fire it off by accident. Now a Glock is another matter as they have a substantially lighter trigger pull than a DA revolver.  I sort of see the same thing with SERPA holsters in that a new piece of technology is exposing weaknesses in shooters fundamental weapons handling.

Without doing a ton of research I suspect two things are involved in this supposed chain of ND’s. First after people hit the release button instead of immediately indexing their finger they unintentionally keep it bent and are applying pressure onto the holster as they draw. When the weapon clears the holster this pressure brings their bent finger into the trigger guard with disastrous results.  The second (which I suspect is the root cause) is folks who are trying to proverbially run when they should be walking or jogging. I would bet that if the same shooters (prior to these ND’s) were asked to draw their pistol and then fire 3 rounds at a target in no particular hurry they would be fine. However if they are out of breath, trying to run while shooting at 3 targets simultaneously and be cool like Quick Draw Delta Dan or Speed Shooting SWAT Jimbo you can get disastrous results. As for why they are SERPA holsters part of it is probably that they are immensely popular with the “I’m going to go to super cool guy class” types.  Also the training issues we talked about before. At least that is what I suspect.

As to classes banning SERPA’s I bring you the 8 pound NY trigger AKA avoidance instead of training. NY decided that too many cops were having ND’s so they got a substantially heavier trigger made. Banning SERPA’s is avoidance of hardware that may be less forgiving of a particular weakness than other hardware.
I have never seen, though have heard of from 1 reputable source (fanboy’s in forum’s do not count) about a SERPA holster locking mechanism jamming. I have never seen an ND which was related to a SERPA holster.

In closing if you own and like the SERPA holster then by all means keep using it, just don’t stick your trigger finger into the trigger guard unless you mean to. No hardware will solve that problem.

Basics

When it comes to defensive and tactical stuff I think it is so important to focus on the basic stuff. If you really look at the difference between successful individuals and organizations and unsuccessful individuals and organizations it is the basics. For example people don't generally lose gunfights because they are unable to do some cool move you saw on an action or instructional video. They lose then (at least in a CCW scenario) by being unable to fluidly and rapidly get their weapon into play and accurately engage targets. Reloads and rapidly clearing malfunctions are sure handy too. When it comes to rifle stuff it would be moving tactically in a variety of situations, engaging targets, reloading and clearing malfunctions. These aren't particularly complicated things to do and it is probably more important to be able to do them with minimal flashiness and a lot of muscle memory than anything else. For example I could show 4 guys how to clear a room properly in a few minutes. The only difference between them and the best entry team out there are a few SOP's (standard operating procedures: just a fancy way of saying little things they do in a standard fashion.) and hundreds or thousands of repetitions of practice. The kind of practice that lets them work out all the kinks and develop muscle memory. The kind of muscle memory that will let them fluidly and properly clear a room when they are mentally and physically tired and under the worst possible conditions.


The same thing could be said about combatives, navigation, physical fitness or just about anything else. People always want to do the cool high speed stuff, especially when it comes to anything defensive or tactical. What they fail to realize is that not only do you need to master the basics before you can do the sexy stuff but that doing the basics very well magically turns into a pretty darn sexy package.

Of Safeties and Fingers

I appreciate Gabe Suarez and his company Suarez International. Like every organization they have the weapons they advocate and are out to make a buck. Hey capitalism is cool so that is all good. Awhile back (not as I am writing this but as you are reading it) they did a lot of talking about safeties and the finger on the trigger.

Gabe Suarez made a great point that the M1911 and the AR-15 have done a lot to influence modern training when it comes to weapons safeties. I think that these two weapons were for so long the weapons our military carried is significant. No matter how much folks don't want to admit it most weapons, training and techniques stuff  trickles from the military to law enforcement to civilians.

If a weapon has a super fast (AR, M1911, M1A, most DA auto's, Mossberg 500, etc) and easily accessible safety then use it. If in the case of say the AK or the Remington 870 the safety is not so accessible then don't worry about it. With the AK I would just take the safety off when I thought I might likely fire and with the 870 I would keep the chamber empty unless I might likely fire the gun. While this might be a slight generalization modern firearms aren't going to go off while you carry them unless you pull the damn trigger. Most have mechanisms so they won't fire even if they take a sharp impact unless the trigger is pulled.

Physically accessible safeties IMO have a lot more to do with people's psychological comfort than actual mechanical functionality. A good friend and experienced shooter who is my buddy is half scared of his Glock 19. He has shot more guns than most folks I know but is just used to semi auto's with a physically accessible safety.

Personally in terms of handguns I grew up on double action revolvers. They don't have a 'safety' but that big heavy trigger pull makes sure you don't fire it on accident. In any case it is psychological. The trigger makes the gun fire. My first handgun was a Glock .40. Again if you don't want to shoot the thing you don't squeeze the trigger with your nose picker. Really not complicated. I guess it is something you are comfortable with or not.

Finger on the trigger is to me a more complicated issue. It is also a great example to show that life is not black or white but full of grey. By far off the trigger is the way you should train and get muscle memory. However I think there are some situations where one might put their finger on the trigger and not immediately shoot. For example I know a guy who is a cop. He pulled a guy over for a half dozen infractions (the vehicle had issues and he had a suspended license and tickets) and as soon as he went towards the truck the guy got out and grabbed a machete from the bed. Needless to say the cop pulled out his gun. The dude was about 18 feet away and just standing there with the machete. My buddy had his finger on the trigger and as he said it he had about 7 pounds of pressure drawn back on that trigger. He started talking to the guy (he was in a bad spot needing to get to work but having a suspended license, a truck that has issues, tickets, etc) and eventually got him calmed down.

Personally at the risk of generalizing I see it being situations where there is an identified threat and you may have to shoot. I would not put my finger on the trigger unless there was a definite target. The reason I would not squeeze the trigger is that the threat had not forced me to shoot. YMMV.